New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that Taichi Ishikari will miss all the shows scheduled throughout the month of February due to suffering a injury to his left knee following a car accident. Because of the injury, NJPW has announced that KAIENTAI DOJO’s Hiro Tonai will be taking Taichi’s place for the month.

5 former Pro-Wrestling NOAH talents, Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kotaro Suzuki and Atsushi Aoki, announced their return to pro wrestling to compete for All Japan Pro-Wrestling. The former NOAH wrestlers will be going forward under the team name, BURNING, which was appropriated honored to them by Kobashi. They’ve come to take charge of AJPW. All 5 of the men appeared during the January 26th show and announced that they will be competing for the promotion in February and possibly longer. All of them shook hands with AJPW’s President, Masayuki Uchida. This will be an interesting shake up for All Japan Pro-Wrestling; It’ll be very interesting to see how Pro-Wrestling NOAH continues to cope with the now permanent loss of these talents.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling announced that BUSHI is now an official part of the NJPW roster, from now on. BUSHI was originally sent to NJPW on loan from All Japan Pro-Wrestling with the possibility of him getting signed full time, if things went well. Both the president of NJPW, Naoki Sugabayashi, and the president of AJPW, Masayuki Uchida, were present for the announcement.

BUSHI says that he has nothing but gratitude for his time in All Japan Pro-Wrestling, but he is proud to wear the lion mark (on his t-shirt) as a member of New Japan Pro-Wrestling. BUSHI also said he plans to work hard to prove himself again since the trial period is over.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced all the matches for their lead in tour heading into “THE NEW BEGINNING” PPV on February 10th. All the matches leading into the PPV are setup up as prelude’s to the show as each competitor or team aim to build any form of momentum heading into the show. The full schedule and cards are below.

New Japan Pro-Wrestling – Road To The New BeginningSaturday, February-2nd-2013, 6:00pmGifu Industrial Hall